


The Petrelli Family Portrait

by noveltea



Category: Heroes - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-17
Updated: 2010-07-17
Packaged: 2017-10-10 15:02:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/101057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noveltea/pseuds/noveltea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The petrelli family have plenty of secrets in their past, but there is one in particular that Nathan remembers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Petrelli Family Portrait

Peter was six years old when he found an old photo in Nathan's bedroom. Just shy of sixteen, Nathan had been out with friends when he came home to find Peter sifting through the cardboard shoe box he had hidden under his bed.

If it had been anyone other than his baby brother, Nathan might have been embarrassed. He kept his most precious items in that box, and unlike other boys his age, they were all family related items. Moments from the past that he wanted to remember for the rest of his life.

He was old enough to remember the past, even if his baby brother was not.

For all his curious nature, Peter had not thrown the items away, instead turning each one over carefully, as if trying to store them all to memory. Nathan stood in the doorway for nearly ten minutes before his brother even realised he was there.

He held up a photograph, the corners dog-eared and worn.

Nathan did not need to see the picture to know which photo it was, and he wasn't surprised that it was something Peter might have questions about. Sitting down on the floor opposite his brother, Nathan took the offered photo and ran his fingers over the image of his parents and himself at age five, and a ten year old girl.

Peter wouldn't have any memories of the girl.

The girl. Their mother would have been proud of Nathan, remembering to detach himself from the memories of his older sister, who had since disappeared from their their lives. Their father never spoke of her, or why she left, and their mother had only ever spoken of it once, with Nathan, right after Amanda had left.

She'd only been seventeen when she'd gone. At thirteen, Nathan had tried to understand the reasons why. He could remember Amanda sneaking into his room in the middle of the night to say goodbye, her promise that everything would be alright, and one day she would see him, and baby Peter, again.

Since then there had been nothing, and days passed when he didn't think of his sister. Then there were days when he could think of nothing else.

"Who's that?" Peter asked him, when Nathan didn't say anything.

He looked up and smiled, the kind of smile he associated with lawyers and politicians - one that didn't quite reach his eyes. Peter was still to young to know the difference, and met his smile with a genuine one of his own.

Nathan handed the photo back to his brother. "She was a family friend," he said, voice even, as though everything was alright.

Even if the sick feeling in his stomach belied every word he spoke.


End file.
